


Whispers

by MissjuliaMiriam



Series: Willow [2]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games)
Genre: Coming Out, Gen, Male Friendship, Mentions of Slavery, Trans Male Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-29
Updated: 2015-06-29
Packaged: 2018-04-06 21:18:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 503
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4236948
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MissjuliaMiriam/pseuds/MissjuliaMiriam
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A deleted/missing scene from Bow and Bend, wherein Krem and Fenris have a slightly overdue conversation about states of birth.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Whispers

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I'm not trans. I don't know what it's like to be trans. This has not been audited by a trans person, and therefore might be offensive to some- I'm not equipped to judge. I've handled the issue as best I can, and as well as I could while staying in-character. You'll have to decide for yourselves. In any case, enjoy.
> 
> A note for new readers: this isn't going to make any sense whatsoever without reading Bow and Bend. Or, well, it might, but really. Read Bow and Bend, it'll grant a lot of necessary context.
> 
> This scene is, I imagine, set mid-Chapter 12-ish, or between Chapters 12 and 13, just for everyone's information.

“I don't have a cock.”

Fenris looks up from the fire and blinks at Krem. He'd heard the other man get up and leave his tent, had been aware of his friend coming to sit beside him, but he hadn't been expecting conversation. Sometimes the Chargers would keep each other company on watch, to avoid nightmares or just for companionship. Usually they were silent. And maybe that was how this had started, but clearly Krem wants to have a conversation, and when he gets into this mood nothing stops him.

“I see,” Fenris says. He makes a quick check of their surroundings, but all is quiet, as it has been since he had relieved Skinner on the watched. He leaves the back of his mind alert, and focuses the rest of himself on Krem.

“I'm not sure you do,” Krem says. He shrugs off his blanket, and Fenris takes him in: in his sleep clothes, it is clear that his chest is not flat, like other men Fenris has known, and not so broad-shouldered as his armour suggests. That, paired with the pitch of Krem's voice, the way his balance falls, and any number of other small things are enough to paint a vivid picture.

“I see,” Fenris says again. He thinks carefully, then says, “All the others refer to you as male.”

“Yes,” Krem says.

“Is it for safety?”

“No.”

Fenris looks again at his friend. The tension in his shoulders, the slightest waver in his voice. It would be so easy to go wrong here, and to break something that could never be fixed. “You are a man in my eyes,” he says finally, gravely. “The way you were born no more defines you than the way I was born defines me.”

Krem looks up from the fire to blink at Fenris. “This is a little more than having been born into slavery, Fenris. That's just- law, circumstance. This is- I'm-” he looks down again. “I used to think I was wrong in some way. That I was sick.”

“I cannot claim to understand your exact circumstances,” Fenris says, “but I understand that you are the way you are because it is right for you. At one time I thought even a dream of freedom was wrong- a sickness, a poison that would turn me from my master and make of me a nothing creature. And yet freedom grew roots in my mind until there was no other option. It was not easy for me. It is not easy now. What I am defies everything I thought I was born to b, and yet it is utterly right.” He pauses, then says, “So it is for you, I suspect. I trust you to know yourself, Krem. If you tell me that you are a man, I will believe you.”

Krem looks taken aback for a moment, and then he looks Fenris square in the eye, his resolve clear in his gaze. “I'm a man,” he says.

Fenris nods. “So you are.”

**Author's Note:**

> Comments and kudos are welcome, as always.


End file.
